WJPA Sports

Wrestling squads are nearing the end of their dual meet campaigns, at least as far as matches that count toward WPIAL/PIAA Team Tournament qualifying. The top two teams in each section will qualify for the WPIAL Team Tournaments along with two wild cards in each classification. Those tournament brackets will be announced on Thursday, Jan. 22, the day after the final matches. Here’s a look at Wednesday’s schedule involving Washington/Greene County teams (section records).

Wednesday, Jan. 14
3A Section 2 Trinity (2-0) at Waynesburg (1-1). Hillers clinch a tournament berth with a win. Raiders stay in contention with a victory. Canon-McMillan (3-0) is off. Big Macs clinch with a Trinity win, or with tie-breakers.

3A Section 3 Peters Township (2-1)  is off this week, then visits Mt. Lebanon (2-0) to close the dual meet season. The Indians will need to win that match to earn a top-two berth. Would be alive for Wild Card selection with a loss.

3A Section 7 Ringgold (1-1) travels to West Mifflin (0-2) tonight before hosting Belle Vernon (2-1) next week. The Rams clinch a spot with two wins, could qualify with a victory against BVA next Wednesday.

2A Section 1 Chartiers-Houston (1-0) hosts Wash High (0-1). McGuffey (1-0) is home to West Greene (0-1). C-H and McGuffey clinch berths with wins. The other two stay alive with wins.

2A Section 2 Burgettstown (2-0) and Avella (1-1) are both off this week. Blue Devils clinch with a win next week against Hopewell, with a South Side win this against against Hopewell, or with an Avella loss to South Side. Avella clinches with a win next week at South Side.

2A Section 3 Beth-Center (2-0) hosts Jeff-Morgan (2-0)  Wednesday with the winner clinching a tournament berth. Bentworth (1-1) visits Brownsville (1-2), the Bearcats needing a win to stay alive for an automatic bid.

Each WPIAL basketball team plays through its section opponents twice. For the overwhelming majority of teams, Tuesday marked the end of the first trip through their league. Here are the Tuesday results and what they mean heading into the second half of the season.

Girls 5A Bethel Park 40, Peters Township 33 OT

Boys
6A Canon-McMillan 69, Connellsville 58
5A Peters Township 62, Bethel Park 32
5A Ringgold 56, Trinity 44
3A Wash High 51, McGuffey 41
3A Charleroi 74, Ligonier Valley 70
3A Waynesburg 53, Mt. Pleasant 45
2A Bentworth 56, Frazier 35
2A Riverview 76, California 25
2A Chartiers-Houston 50, Jeff-Morgan 45
2A Fort Cherry 79, Carmichaels 26
2A Beth-Center 76, West Greene 67
2A Burgettstown 67, Mapletown 20

Girls
5A Section 4 Peters Township drops into fifth place with the loss to Bethel Park.

Boys
6A Section 2 Canon-McMillan moved to within one game of the final playoff berth.
5A Section 3 Peters Township stays just one game back of first place Thomas Jefferson.
5A Section 3 Ringgold moves into a tie for fourth place while Trinity drops two games off the pace.
3A Section 2 Wash High takes over fourth place, one game up on McGuffey. Watch/Listen Here
3A Section 4 Charleroi  and Waynesburg are now tied with Ligonier Valley in second place, two games back of Southmoreland.
2A Section 1 Bentworth stays solidly in third place, two games out of first. California remains winless in the section and overall.
2A Section 3 Chartiers-Houston moves into sole possession of first place, one game up on Jeff-Morgan. The loss is the first of the year for J-M.  Fort Cherry is alone in third place, followed by Beth-Center.  Carmichaels and West Greene are tied for the final playoff spot in the section.  Burgettstown’s win at Mapletown is the first of the year in section for the Blue Devils.
1A Section 1 Avella (2-1) is in third place and is off until Thursday when the Eagles visit Summit Academy (1-2).  Avella then hosts Beaver County Christian (1-3) on Friday.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the deciding goal in the shootout and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 on Tuesday night for their 11th straight win. J.J. Moser scored in regulation and Andrei Vasilevskiy had 26 saves for the Lightning, who have not lost since a 2-1 defeat at home against Los Angeles on Dec. 18. The Lightning moved into first place in the Atlantic Division, one point ahead of Detroit, which lost 3-0 at Boston. Evgeni Malkin scored for the Penguins and Arturs Silovs had 30 saves. Pittsburgh lost its third straight (0-2-1) since a six-game win streak. Gage Goncalves scored for Tampa Bay in the second round of the tiebreaker, and Egor Chinakov tied it for Pittsburgh on their attempt in the third round. Kucherov then won it for the Lightning.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Mike Tomlin era with the Pittsburgh Steelers is over. The longest tenured head coach in major American professional sports stepped down Tuesday after yet another quick playoff exit. The announcement came a day after the end of Tomlin’s 19th season in Pittsburgh. Tomlin won a Super Bowl and went to another during his first four seasons with the Steelers before the club settled into a familiar and frustrating pattern of solid if not always spectacular play followed by a playoff cameo that ended with the Steelers on the wrong side of a blowout. Tomlin went 193-112-2 in Pittsburgh but lost each of his last seven playoff games.